As special counsel Robert Mueller builds his case, relatives of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn are among those pressing the president to use his unique legal power and ‘put these defendants out of their misery.’

Emmanuel Macron resigns from French government

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday he was resigning from the French government because he felt that his economy portfolio, as well as the need for government solidarity, prevented him from contributing to the big national debates he said France should engage in.

The economy minister refrained from saying whether he would run for president next year, but he said that “electoral campaigns” were the only times when ideas can usefully be exchanged.

Macron’s resignation had been largely expected ever since he launched his own political movement last April. A short statement from the French presidency late afternoon said he had resigned “to devote himself full time to his movement” En Marche.

“France is going through exceptional circumstances,” Macron said in a statement at the French economic affairs and finance ministry in Paris, saying he had “tested the limits of a political system that fosters last-minute compromises, leaves too much room to fears, produces ready-made solutions and ignores simple reality.”

Macron had visited French President François Hollande in the Elysée Palace in the afternoon to tender his resignation and the news was widely commented on by the French political establishment before it had even received any form of official confirmation.

The resignation, which had been rumored for months, will allow Macron to focus on a possible presidential bid. He said he would publish a “transformation plan” for France at the end of September after his sympathizers canvassed the country in the last few months.

Macron had considered leaving the government in April, on the advice of several of his associates, but delayed in order to get a clearer idea of how the presidential field would look in the fall, an aide explained at the time.

No longer serving as a minister would free Macron to devote himself more fully to his En Marche campaign, which lost some momentum over the summer after a terrorist attack in Nice refocused national attention on security, not an obvious strong point for an economy-focused minister.

The economy minister is said by associates not to have made up his mind about a presidential bid, but conservative politicians didn’t wait for his formal decision to pounce on his record.

“If I understand well we haven’t had an economic policy in the last four years and in the next four minutes we won’t have an economy minister: that’s logical,’” former French president Nicolas Sarkozy quipped Tuesday afternoon during a visit in Chalons-en-Champagne.

Guillaume Larrivé, a Bourgogne MP and spokesperson for Sarkozy’s Les Républicains party, tried to tar Macron with some of Hollande’s unpopularity. “[Macron] has been associated with everything that has been done during [Hollande’s] term,” he said.

A former investment banker with Rothschilds, Macron, 38, joined Hollande’s team as an adviser, where he was credited with engineering the Socialist president’s abrupt shift to supply-side economic policies in 2014.

As economy minister, Macron focused on defending French interests in trade disputes and promoting startup culture. But exposure also brought criticism from Socialist colleagues in government, including Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who complained in private and at times in public that Macron — who describes himself as being sympathetic to the Left although not a member of the Socialist Party — was too self-promoting and stepped outside the limits of his cabinet post.

Macron was scheduled to give a live interview to France’s television channel TF1 at 8 p.m. Paris time.

Related stories on these topics:

European

He will be the new President of France. A skillful one.

Posted on 8/30/16 | 3:33 PM CET

Filippo

Of course, Macron would barely win the votes of his family and his close friends, as already happened to similar establishment puppets pushed by europhile media and economic powers, such as Mario Monti, Albert Rivera or Stavros Theodorakis. He won’t even try to run for president. The, appointed not elected, role of head of government is ready for him when, after the legislative election, the new president will realize that, thanks to a good Le Pen, performance, no party alone could form a majority.
That is why he needs to resign and show he is super partes
Good luck to France, they need it…

Posted on 8/30/16 | 4:27 PM CET

Karel Musch (NL)

Hmmm…… One French minister saying of another he is too self-promoting? How quaint.